We have tried to anticipate the questions you might most likely ask. To make your search for the right question a little easier, we have categorized them. Please look for your question in the Table of Contents
directly below. Click on the question and you will be forwarded to the answer.

an icon that marks the chronological position in the chart as well as
symbolizing the major category

a description of the event

a hyphen followed by the last name of person involved or the name
of the place the event occurred

the year in brackets when the event occurred

Sometimes the hyphen and person's name are missing. This is usually because
the event includes the name of the individual. To save precious space, the
name is removed to minimize redundancy. For example, for the entry, Boyle's
Law (volume of gas) disc. (1662), "Boyle" is the principal person
to discover the law, after whom it is named.

Sometimes the
principal person is unknown, such as the author of Beowulf in 0700 AD.
In other instances, the entry is an acknowledgement of a general event such as
World War II (1939-45) or AIDS 1st seen as world-threatening (1985).
No one person or particular place name is appropriate.

No. One category is
chosen for that entry. As big as the wall chart is, our research generated far more
possible events than could ever be included on the chart. To maximize the number
of events displayable, each event appears only once. No entry is deliberately
repeated. The exception is that the World Events category may
include certain science and technology events that had an impact worldwide, such
as the light bulb, the safety elevator or pasteurization. Such events
listed in World Events will also be duplicated in a more brief form in
their respective principle category.

There are numerous
cases throughout history where credit for an invention or discovery is in
dispute. In some cases, the credit eventually becomes shared, as in the case of
the invention of Calculus. Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz
both claimed to be the inventor and controversy raged for decades. History has
tended to give credit to both mathematicians. Calculus has been treated as
having been independently and simultaneously invented by two individuals,
unbeknownst to each other. This happens more frequently than you might imagine.

In many cases the
ambiguity and conflict is in the proper definition of the invention or
discovery. Thomas Edison did not invent the incandescent light bulb. He
perfected it and created the first practical light bulb. Furthermore, he was
backed with the kind of financial resources to take his perfected invention and
make it commercially viable. Hence, most people first hear of his particular
light bulb and assume it to be the original invention. We have made a concerted
effort to properly define an invention. Where we believe the invention to be the
first of it's kind, we so state in wall chart. If its "first" status
could not be ascertained, then we omit "1st" and just state the
invention or discovery. Nevertheless, the entry may be the first but we could
not substantiate it.

One additional
consideration we often use in our determination of credit for an invention or
discovery, is to refer to a wide variety of reference works and weigh what other
scholars on the subject believe is correct. In most cases, there is a clear
preference and we will usually defer to that scholarly preference.

The wall charts are
designed principally and foremost as a reference tool. Therefore, the text is
the first priority. Where there was a "hole" in the chart (a large
space between a group of text entries) we would place a photograph. The size of
the photograph is directly impacted by the space available.

You may also notice
that the photo is not always near the corresponding text entry. Some of the
photos we have are exciting and rare. We wanted to ensure that they were on the
chart. Often, the relevant text entry had no immediate space around it to
accommodate a photo. Since it is our premise that the wall chart text is the
first priority, photos were placed where space permitted, and the best or most
interesting photos were placed first.

All
photographs are published with the permission of the copyright holder.

Click
this link for the photo
credits for the Science & Technology wall chart.

Synchronopedia does not have permission to provide the
photos in any other size or format, or for any other purpose except as
specifically used for the wall chart.

Abbreviations were used as another device to
save space. For example, on the S&T wall chart, the word "first" was used over 750 times on the wall
chart. Abbreviated to "1st" saved two characters for each entry, totaling over 1,500 characters. This one abbreviation made it possible to add
probably another 30 to 50 entries.

The category bars that run horizontally across the chart are not following
any path. There are a different number of entries at any given point in
time, in each category. Mathematics may have 12 entries between the
year 1600 and 1605, while Electrics and Electronics may have only 2
entries for the same time period. Therefore, the entries in each category
have been aligned as close as possible together to maximize the available
space.

The categories are
visually separated by a black border line and a differentiating color. Each
category has its own representative icon and all entries within a specific
category begin with that representative icon. For example, Mathematics is
represented by an open book icon. Electronics and Electrics is
represented by a light bulb icon. All the category icons are listed in a table
at the bottom of the chart. You can click here
to see an enlarged photo of the Science & Technology chart (when you reach
the product page, click on the thumbnail image to enlarge it).

After collecting
several thousand candidate entries for the S&T chart, several
"major" categories became more or less self-evident. The principle
sciences during the last millennium were Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry,
Medicine and Astronomy. Given the enormous impact that diseases like
the bubonic plague ("black death"), typhoid, scurvy, etc. had on the
world population, the category of "diseases" was added to Medicine.
Astronomy was broadened a bit to include all aspects of space, including
weather.

The S&T chart
focuses on these principal sciences. Other interesting scientific events that did
not fall into any of the principal science categories were collected in a
"miscellaneous" category called Other Sciences.

There simply wasn't
enough physical space on the chart to include all the events, as well as all the people's
names. We have provided a cross-reference table of people's names for the
S&T Chart, which you can download.
This cross-reference table is only useful if you already own the S&T
Chart.

We ship the wall
chart worldwide by postal service, rolled and packaged in a 1" or 3" diameter
tube. Up to five wall charts can be placed in one 3" tube. Each tube is treated by
the postal service as a separate shipped package but we will attach multiple
tubes together so they all arrive to you at the same time.

Large quantity
orders, express service requirements, and tracing services are available but
not automated. Please contact our
customer
service department by email to handle your special requirements.

You can read
all information regarding shipping, handling, pricing and taxes
here.

We receive your online
order the same day that it is submitted to us. Online, fax, telephone and email
orders are all fulfilled typically within one (1) business day. We fulfill
purchase orders and orders received by postal mail within one (1) business day
of receipt of the order in our shipping department.

If you select Airmail
delivery then your order should be received by you within two (2) weeks of
placing the order, subject to the efficiencies of your country's postal service.
Delivery by surface mail (available only for Canada and the United States) can be as long as six to eight (6-8) weeks. Surface mail is
actually "consolidated airmail." For an explanation as well as all
other information regarding shipping, handling, pricing and taxes, please click
here.

The pricing for each
product is provided in a pricing table that can be found on each product page.
Shipping & handling pricing as well as any taxes that might be payable, can
all be determined before entering the online automated shopping cart, by
clicking here.

The quantity discounts
offered, shipping and handling charges and taxes (if any) are computed
automatically in the shopping cart, based upon the pricing tables and formulae
provided in the link immediately above.

Your total order price
will be presented to you after you have entered our secure online shopping cart
and selected the delivery option you prefer. You will be presented with the
final price BEFORE you are committed to the transaction, and you will be
prompted for your final "okay" before you make the final submission.

We fulfill your order
within one (1) business day of receipt of your order. Your credit card is billed
the same day. The automated shopping cart is linked to our
bank.
Our bank has strong business rules and processes to ensure the security and
safety of your information, credit card and the transaction between you and
Synchronopedia.

Although we hope you
will never need to use them, If, for any reason, we are unable to satisfy you
with respect to any issue having to do with your credit card transaction and us,
you will find further options of recourse available to you in our shopping
cart.

Please see your various
contact options for resolving any kind of issue
or question you might have with us.

Certificates
are used by your browser to guarantee to you that your online credit card
transactions are encrypted and secure. They are issued for a limited time period
within a browser.

If
you use a browser version that is older than Netscape version 4.06
(released August 1998), or Microsoft InternetExplorer 4.5 or older for the Macintosh, then entering our secure
server environment may result in a Certificate Warning or a Certificate
Alert.

Your
computer may inform you that "One of the Certificate Authorities that
identifies this site has expired. This may be because a certificate authority
has actually expired, or because the date on your computer is wrong."

You
will be asked if you want to continue or cancel the transaction. Be assured that
you can continue with your purchase – your transaction is still secure.

The
browser message is a result of you using an older browser version. It is not
related to Y2K bugs, or any problem with our site. It means that a built-in
expiry date in your browser has been exceeded. The security is still effective,
but its warranty has expired. This expiry process ensures that browsers are
continuously updated with the latest technology. To avoid this message, you should acquire the latest version of Netscape or Microsoft Internet Explorer.
Both browsers are currently free to use.

The price
between a standard size and the mural size wall chart is on an order
of a 10:1 difference. The large format price is truly a reflection of
the cost to manufacture. It is not an exaggerated license fee.

A
mural-size wall chart is printed individually on a large-format,
high-resolution inkjet printer. It takes about an hour to output one
and it is done by a outside vendor. It then has to be delivered to a
different company for lamination.

The
standard-size wall charts are manufactured in quantity at one
time on an offset litho press. Several thousand can be printed in less
than an hour. 40" x 28" is also a standard movie-size poster and there
are enough presses around to drive competitive pricing. The largest
format poster commercially available without "tiling" portions
together is a 60" press but there are only a couple of vendors that
can do this work so pricing is not nearly as competitive.

We
believe the size of our standard wall charts represents the best
balance of economies of scale and resale price.

We are always
interested in quality Web sites that have some common interests with our own. We
provide links to the Web sites of all of our merchant accounts. We actively
encourage cross-links between us and sites that feature
timelines
and wall charts. We do not offer fees for listing our Web site on your site.

We do not
generally cross-advertise, per se. We are not in the "advertising" business and
do not generate our income from advertising. However, we do encourage
mutual-benefit cross-promotion. If your Web site has some commonality with ours,
we would be happy to have a link between your site and ours.

We do expect that your
Web site is always accessible, and of at least a modest professional quality.

We
are committed to protecting your privacy. We use the information we collect
about you to process orders and to provide a more meaningful browsing and
shopping experience when you visit us at Synchronopedia.com. We may also use it
to tell you about changes in our services or about special offers we think
you'll find valuable (if you ask us to).

Under no
circumstances will Synchronopedia release any of your information to a third
party. We
do not sell, trade, or rent your personal information to others. If there is an
offer or opportunity we think you might be interested in, we will tell you
ourselves, and then only if you have selected the check box indicating that you
would like to receive such notices. We stand by our No Junk
Mail guarantee.

Absolutely. Each
transaction is protected with 128-bit data encryption. Our
bank is a
well-established world-class institution and our hosting company has an
impeccable track record.

One of the more
important things to know about your vendor is whether or not you are actually at
the location you think you are at (that is, that you haven't been
"secretly" re-directed) and that you are doing a transaction with the
people with whom you think you are doing the transaction - not some hidden
middle person or an alias. This aspect of Web security is handled with digital
certificates. A digital certificate guarantees to you the true identity of the
Web site you are visiting and with which you are doing business.

From time to time you may feel that we
haven't lived up to your expectations. While we will do all in our power to
resolve any issue you may have of any kind relating to our Web site, services
and products, if your issue with Synchronopedia is still not satisfactorily
addressed by us, and your issue involves one of the following services, then
feel free to contact them directly.

Many Web sites hide their
partners' identities. We are proud of our vendor partners who work
with us to make your shopping experience here safe, expedient and reliable. Our
partners include:

Partner Name

Service

What they do for us

Web
Site Hosting

These people host our Web site and guarantee secure,
safe, 24-hour, 7-days-per-week uninterrupted access to the Synchronopedia Web
site.

Look-and-feel of web site, storefront, shopping cart

These people provided the template design for our Web site as well as an
integrated shopping cart. We highly endorse their products and exceptional
customer support.

Credit Card Transaction Processor

WorldPay
processes our web site credit card transactions. They ensure that you are treated fairly and
that your financial information remains private and secure.

Online Payment Transaction Processor

PayPal (owned by eBay) enables any individual or business with an email
address to securely, easily and quickly send and receive payments online. They ensure that you are treated fairly and
that your financial information remains private and secure.